David Cameron has backed a pair of ‘extraordinarily brave’ British brothers who have built a business that helps orphans around the world after they lost both parents in the Boxing Day tsunami.

The prime minister met Rob and Paul Forkan, founders of Gandys flip flops, in Sri Lanka on their first visit to the country that ‘took everything’ from them in the 2004 tragedy.

Now 24 and 26, the pair of young entrepreneurs have signed a new deal with Monsoon and will be stocked in Accessorize stores in the UK and 17 other countries around the world from spring next year.

‘I think it’s extraordinarily brave to come back to a country where there are unhappy memories for them and to help with these orphanage projects,’ Mr Cameron told Metro at Colombo Cricket Club.

‘They’re amazing guys and I really back what they’re doing.’

Gandys donates ten per cent of profits to its ‘Orphans for Orphans’ initiative and has already funded a teacher, nurses and educational supplies in Goa.

But they hope to be able to sell up to 250,000 flip flops by next summer and plan to open a children’s home by the end of 2014 – ten years on from the disaster.

Gandys and Monsoon plan to fund projects for abandoned or orphaned young people in Sri Lanka (Picture: Lee Thompson)

‘They’ve got a great business idea and I really admire their entrepreneurship and their drive getting this business from nothing to hoping to sell a quarter of a million flip flops in such a short period of time, it’s amazing,’ the prime minister added.

The Gandys brothers have been visiting homes for orphaned young people with Monsoon and Accessorize founder Peter Simon, who is Sri Lankan born and also funds projects in the region.

Rob Forkan, who gave the Tory PM his own pair of blue Gandys, said it had been tough to visit the country nine years on.

A blog post of the brothers’ story written before they arrived in Sri Lanka’s capital city Colombo on Tuesday has so far received more than a million hits.

‘It’s been extremely difficult to come back here, but we just want to try and create something positive out of a bad situation,’ said Rob.

Mr Cameron’s trip to Sri Lanka has been surrounded by controversy after he defied calls not to visit to Jaffna in the north yesterday, where many Tamil families are still living in makeshift accommodation more than 20 years after losing their homes in the civil war.

The prime minister insisted it had been a worthwhile visit and said it ‘was really interesting to come here and see some of these things for yourself’.

There are estimated to be around 20,000 orphaned or abandoned children in Sri Lanka following the tsunami and a 26-year civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels, which came to an end in 2009.

To learn more about joining the ‘Orphans for Orphans’ movement, click here.